1. Area of the Art
The present invention relates generally to a method and related devices for the deactivation of landmines. More particularly, the present invention includes several devices used to carry out a method of training live animals, such as rats, to seek out and destroy active landmines in the field, or to localize, unearth, and mark the location of active mines, thereby reducing the danger of their later removal by valuable sniffing mine clearing animals, technology, and mine clearing personnel, making a landmine clearance effort more effective and efficient.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many areas around the world, thousands of landmines which have not been removed from previous armed conflicts remain active and intact. This poses a grave and constant threat to human inhabitants, particularly children. The cost in the loss of lives and livelihood is unacceptably high and the cost to meticulously clear these areas using conventional approaches is equally prohibitive.
To make matters worse, the hilly and irregular terrain makes the use of conventional bulldozers and other general methods impractical and difficult. Current methods of clearing or deactivating land mines can be generally divided into four categories: (1) human-directed field detection, mostly employed in poor developing nations, whether by sophisticated hand held devices or through the use of highly dangerous methods of attempting to deactivate the landmines directly; (2) bomb or land mine-sniffing dogs that are trained to locate and trace vapors or odors of the landmine explosive materials which leak over time; (3) high-tech equipment and computers which analyze collected air samples to detect explosive materials in the atmosphere, as well as sophisticated and expensive mapping methods; and (4) heavy, military motorized equipment or vehicles. Unfortunately, only with the exception of the most primitive methods of detecting landmines, which offer the greatest risk of loss in human life, all of these methods are extremely costly. Cost has been the overwhelming limiting factor to widespread efforts to clear active landmine fields in the world.
For instance, whereas dogs have proven to be highly effective detection agents, each dog costs over $50,000 to train and to continue to be effective in the face of changing mine modalities, each dog requires regular skills maintenance and additional training. Furthermore, other limitations besides their high cost are equally discouraging: (1) trained dogs are occasionally casualties themselves because over time, a significant percentage of these animals die as casualties in the field; (2) the long-term use of trained dogs is not possible because although dogs can be well-trained based only on praise and affection from their human on trainers masters, these xe2x80x9cstimulixe2x80x9d prove to wane in strength over time. Inevitably, as this occurs, the level of risk to the training personnel increases; (3) the use of trained dogs depends heavily on the presence and interaction with a trained human de-miner which still imposes a great element of risk to human life; (4) the training is xe2x80x9ctaskxe2x80x9d specific because dogs only learn how to locate landmines, and once they have located them, training dogs to avoid detonating a landmine is extremely difficult, presenting a high degree of inadvertently setting off remote booby-trap mechanisms; (5) as dogs are limited to only localizing mines, the two problems of unearthing and disposing of the localized mines remain; and (6) dogs only provide guidance and information as to the location of a landmine in a relatively large general area, ineffective for safe pin-point detection of landmines for human clearers.
High-tech or heavy equipment/vehicles all are prohibitively expensive and hence unrealistic for most developing nations where the greatest number of active landmine fields.
Another problem with the methods and devices described above is poor accessibility to the active landmine field areas. Transporting mine-clearing specialists, dogs, high-tech and heavy equipment to remote areas is a great obstacle in clearance efforts.
Most importantly, current methods and devices pose an extremely dangerous risk to landmine clearance personnel. The best of trained personnel, even with extensive education and sound judgment, are constantly subject to great risk because of the possibilities of error and missed detection. Even with the aid of a highly trained dog having extensive experience, humans life is seriously at risk. Therefore, methods and devices used in clearing and disarming active land mines must maximize the protection of trained human specialists.
Therefore, in order to fulfill these safety requirements and be equally successful in effecting a complete disablement of active landmines, an approach to the global landmine problem must address and consider a number of critical and essential, including factors: (1) landmine design constraints; (2) accessibility over difficult terrain and remote topography of landmines; (3) detection difficulties due to low to zero metal content, small size, and camouflage properties; (4) novel xe2x80x9cbooby trapxe2x80x9d mechanisms; (5) economically feasible disposal methods and; (6) dangers from ongoing regional conflicts imposed on human mine clearing personnel.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a cost-effective method and related devices for the disarming of active landmines which can minimize risks to the lives of trained personnel and animals. This and the other objects and advantages are achieved by using rodent rats or other suitable animals to perform the most dangerous tasks of landmine clearance, namely the steps of localizing and unearthing landmines.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method that is highly flexible, synergistic and complementary to other conventional methods presently employed.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a flexible implementation strategy which is cost-effective and feasible to achieve in a short period of time. The apparatus and method of the present invention can be implemented, managed and used not only by professionally trained persons but by the inhabitants of the landmine area who are directly affected by the presence of active landmines in their communities, after receiving the necessary training and technical guidance. This reduces the need for the presence professionally trained personal in the field thus significantly reducing the operational costs.
Another object of the present invention is to implement a simple, low-tech, and widely accessible method for the preliminary detection of landmines in the field which exploits the existence of a common substance present in most active landmines.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a method for precisely identifying the location of landmines by using objects to mark landmine sites or using interactive electronic signaling devices, and mapping techniques.